# How can trump lower gas prices? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 28, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528 "2025-01-28T13:15:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/1 "2025-01-28T13:15:24Z")
Aren’t these his only two options- nationalize the oil industry, or give the oil industry such great tax breaks that they would be happy to sell at a loss. A side question: how did the prices gasoline and fucking eggs become the barometer by which we monitor the health of the economy? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/2 "2025-01-28T13:21:55Z")
I thought the key indicator was toilet paper or paper towels. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/3 "2025-01-28T13:25:43Z")
He’s not going to. That’s the thing- people are ignorant of how commodity prices work, and about what degree of influence a President (or any other politician) really has without dramatic and drastic measures. And with oil, most of what the President could do directly would likely increase prices, not lower them. At the very best, he can lean on other countries to increase supply in hopes that’ll change prices. And with eggs, it’s even less clear. The causes of the egg price rises are bird flu consequences on laying hens. Basically laying hens lay for two or three years, and take longer to get to maturity, so when they die to disease, it makes a much larger, longer-term dent in the egg supply, versus that of chicken meat, which comes from chickens from six to 1.5 years old, with most of them on the younger side of that at 18 weeks or thereabouts. Not much a President can realistically do to change that. But it doesn’t matter really… he’ll say he’ll do something, and when he doesn’t, there are always legions of reasons why he wasn’t successful, groups working against him (and by extension the American people), and so forth. The sad part is that the people who believe him on the first claim are likely to believe him on the second as well. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/4 "2025-01-28T13:35:10Z")
Well said. The ag industry has been **[pushing for authorization](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-farmers-call-vaccine-option-fight-bird-flu-wildfowl-migration-begins-2024-09-27/)** to get bird flu _vaccines_ into their hands. I’m sure that would be Job One for HHS Secretary RFK, Jr. (and Ag Sec nominee, Brooke Rollins). :rolleyes: It kinda’ becomes one of the innumerable MAGA trolley problems – having to choose among their laundry list of bogeymen. For an overview on the levers that move commodity pricing … > **[How Commodity Prices Can Impact the Market and Inflation | U.S. Bank](https://www.usbank.com/investing/financial-perspectives/market-news/commodity-prices-impact-on-the-market.html)** > > As commodity prices fuel surging inflation, opportunities exist for investors to position their portfolios to benefit from the current environment. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/5 "2025-01-28T14:05:31Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But it doesn’t matter really… he’ll say he’ll do something, and when he doesn’t, there are always legions of reasons why he wasn’t successful, groups working against him (and by extension the American people), and so forth. This. But even worse. True believers have very short and selective memories. trump will tell the MAGAts he will bully [something] to lower gas prices. Prices won’t actually move despite a bunch of loud public bullying. He will then tell the MAGAts his bullying has led directly to drastically lowered gas prices. All the propaganda outlets will tell everyone he’s lowered gas prices. The MAGA public will _believe_ gas prices are indeed lower. Armed with a propaganda-besotted populace he can turn _anything_ he touches into a (seeming) success. Which further cements his reputation in their mind as the Magic Leader with the unstoppable Midas-as-Bully touch. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/6 "2025-01-28T14:12:16Z")
His worshippers don’t care that he breaks every single campaign promise. If he fucks up the country and makes life miserable for them, they have the consolation that it’s miserable for the libtards, too. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/7 "2025-01-28T16:17:51Z")
Or most likely, prices will fall of their own accord, as they do, but he’ll take credit for a naturally occurring market correction or seasonal demand fluctuation. I mean, the average person probably can’t easily determine that whatever blustering he did _didn’t_ have some kind of effect on the price, so they’ll probably give him the benefit of the doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/8 "2025-01-28T16:23:25Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > A side question: how did the prices gasoline and fucking eggs become the barometer by which we monitor the health of the economy? For gas, it’s because fuels are a base-level input to virtually every industry, and at almost every stage of the industry. Extracting resources, refining them, transporting them, converting them into products, transporting the products, selling them to end users, all end up costing more if the gas used at every stage is more expensive. Eggs are mostly just viral, I think. They’re a ubiquitous product that everyone recognizes, and almost everyone uses, so the current price shocks are very visible. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/9 "2025-01-28T17:22:46Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > nationalize the oil industry, or give the oil industry such great tax breaks that they would be happy to sell at a loss. Or, crash the economy so hard that no one is driving/shipping anything. The cheap gas he touts from his last term was from the depths of COVID, so maybe another one of those. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/10 "2025-01-28T17:34:08Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > The ag industry has been **[pushing for authorization](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-farmers-call-vaccine-option-fight-bird-flu-wildfowl-migration-begins-2024-09-27/)** to get bird flu _vaccines_ into their hands. I’m sure RFK will lead a fierce fight to prevent the possibility of autistic chickens as a result of the vaccine. I don’t understand the big ass deal about egg prices. In our house, we might go through 2 dozen eggs in a month. Whether we spend $2 a month on eggs or $12 isn’t a big freaking whoop. Who died and made egg prices king? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/11 "2025-01-28T17:48:43Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Who died and made egg prices king? The people who feed their 6 kids two each every morning, plus 4 each for the adults. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/12 "2025-01-28T17:50:12Z")
Those people would spend more on Lipitor than what they spend on eggs. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/13 "2025-01-28T18:21:46Z")
The same people who spent thousands of dollars to travel to DC to watch the inauguration. Back to the OP, he can’t. Even if US oil production were even higher than its current extremely high level, oil is a commodity and we’re just one producer. By removing any incentives for green energy and electric cars, he could end up increasing the demand for O&G, causing an increase in prices. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/14 "2025-01-28T18:56:31Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I don’t understand the big ass deal about egg prices. In our house, we might go through 2 dozen eggs in a month. Whether we spend $2 a month on eggs or $12 isn’t a big freaking whoop. Who died and made egg prices king? It isn’t just the prices. We went shopping on Sunday and there were no eggs. At any price. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/15 "2025-01-28T19:30:40Z")
That’s fine and completely understandable. But why people think it’s in any way under the control of the president is baffling. Equally galling is this asinine concept of “energy independence”. The US has for a very long time exported oil and at the same time imported oil. We do so because different refineries use different grades of oil and we can’t drill enough of each one to satisfy demand domestically. If by some quirk the US drilled exactly enough of each grade to satisfy domestic demand the price of gas would still depend on global supply and demand. Why would domestic producers sell for $50 a barrel at home when they could ship it abroad for $60? Nothing but global supply and global demand is responsible for gas prices in any meaningful way, this nonsense about energy independence is just spreading disinformation. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/16 "2025-01-28T19:33:01Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > But why people think it’s in any way under the control of the president is baffling. Because the GOP spent years telling them exactly that. Inflation was Biden’s fault, period. They even made those “I did that!” stickers to drive the point home. It’s stupid, sure, but the GOP has been weaponizing stupidity for a long, long time now. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/17 "2025-01-28T20:21:50Z")
> [@bump](#): > > chicken meat, which comes from chickens from six to 1.5 years old From six _weeks_, presumably? > [@LSLGuy](#): > > trump will tell the MAGAts he will bully [something] to lower gas prices. Prices won’t actually move despite a bunch of loud public bullying. He will then tell the MAGAts his bullying has led directly to drastically lowered gas prices. All the propaganda outlets will tell everyone he’s lowered gas prices. The MAGA public will _believe_ gas prices are indeed lower. We have always been at war with EastAsia – and life expectancy just went up! > [@BobLibDem](#): > > Who died and made egg prices king? The people who want to blame it on Biden. [ETA: not that they’ve died.] It could have been anything commonly purchased that for whatever reason had significantly increasing prices near the end of his term. But eggs are pretty convenient because the people who buy them often buy them on most major grocery trips. In many cuisines they’re used not only to eat as eggs, but as a very common ingredient in all sorts of things; so most people who cook often at home and aren’t vegan are probably buying eggs at least occasionally, and may be buying quite a few of them. > [@wguy123](#): > > It isn’t just the prices. We went shopping on Sunday and there were no eggs. At any price. Come around here, we’ve got plenty. Of course, we’ve also got plenty of relatively small-scale egg farmers. The overall large-scale USA food distribution system is massively vulnerable to all sorts of disruption, though it mostly covers itself by importing from wherever in the world has got some. Fresh eggs are more perishable than grains or even apples, though, so maybe that technique of dealing with it isn’t working that well; or maybe – surprise! – avian flu isn’t interested in borders. > [@BobLibDem](#): > > Why would domestic producers sell for $50 a barrel at home when they could ship it abroad for $60? I’ve had very little luck pointing out to my neighbor that a pipeline from Canada or northern USA to Texas isn’t going to lower gas prices in the USA because it’ll just go overseas. It’s not that he doesn’t believe me that that’s where it’s going – it’s just that he’s had it drummed into his head so hard that it’ll lower gas prices here that he’s sure that somehow it will. Yeah, I suppose that flooding the whole planet with lots of oil would bring prices down-- which would massively upset the companies selling oil, which is why they won’t do it, whatever the President says, and even if they could massively increase availability within a few months by instantly drilling in places they haven’t been allowed to prospect in. > [@Horatius](#): > > the GOP has been weaponizing stupidity for a long, long time now The real question is, will all those people they’ve convinced that high prices and shortages must be the POTUS’ fault remain convinced when those things happen under Trump? Twenty years ago, maybe even ten, I’d have thought so. Now? I’m not at all sure that doublespeak won’t work. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/18 "2025-01-28T20:24:58Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > But why people think it’s in any way under the control of the president is baffling. > [@Horatius](#): > > Because the GOP spent years telling them exactly that. Inflation was Biden’s fault, period. They even made those “I did that!” stickers to drive the point home. Yep. The right has been harping on this for while now. I can’t wait for them to put up Trump “I did that!” stickers. I’m sure they will, won’t they? Plus, I’m sure gas prices will go up at some point during Trump’s term. Can’t wait to see those stickers! ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/19 "2025-01-28T20:25:47Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I’ve had very little luck pointing out to my neighbor that a pipeline from Canada or northern USA to Texas isn’t going to lower gas prices in the USA because it’ll just go overseas. It’s not that he doesn’t believe me that that’s where it’s going – it’s just that he’s had it drummed into his head so hard that it’ll lower gas prices here that he’s sure that somehow it will. > > Yeah, I suppose that flooding the whole planet with lots of oil would bring prices down-- which would massively upset the companies selling oil Especially the Canadian oil that your neighbor wants so much of. Albertan oil is some of the most expensive to produce in the world. If the price falls below about $50 per barrel, they’ll lose money on every barrel they sell. Get oil back up to $100/barrel, and the Albertans will sell you as much as you want - but you’ll want less! It’s a wonderful market. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/20 "2025-01-28T20:40:32Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > Yep. The right has been harping on this for while now. I can’t wait for them to put up Trump “I did that!” stickers. I’m sure they will, won’t they? Plus, I’m sure gas prices will go up at some point during Trump’s term. Can’t wait to see those stickers! They’ll be there if we put them there. And spend the fuel to drive to predominantly red areas to install them where they’ll possibly do some good. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528.md?page=2)